Former Santa Barbara High football star Booker Brown, a collegiate All-American at USC and offensive lineman for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers, died Monday, according to family friends.
Brown, 69, had been serving as a Christian minister in the Mojave area. He and his wife Jacqueline also ran the Booker T. Brown Foundation for underprivileged families.
He was born on Sept. 25, 1952 in Desson, Miss. He moved with his family to Santa Barbara at age 10 and attended Franklin School and Santa Barbara Junior High before graduating from Santa Barbara High in 1970. He played basketball and baseball as well as football for the Dons.
Brown, a 6-foot-2 and 257-pound lineman, also played football at Santa Barbara City College before winning an athletic scholarship to USC. He was voted as a Junior College All-American as well as the Western State Conference Offensive Player of the Year in 1971. He led the Vaqueros to the first nine-win season in their history and only their second undefeated league season.
“I had no conception of what that meant because an offensive lineman does not get player of the year,” Brown said when inducted into SBCC’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019. “You’ve got quarterbacks and running backs and receivers and defensive backs (who win it).”
Brown played two more seasons at USC. He became a starter midway through the Trojans’ 12-0, NCAA championship season of 1972. Sam Cunningham, who had been Brown’s teammate at Santa Barbara High, was also a star offensive back for that USC team.
Brown won consensus NCAA All-America honors the following season of 1973 while helping USC win its second-straight Pac-8 championship and Rose Bowl berth.
He was selected by the Houston Oilers in the sixth round of the 1974 NFL Draft but signed instead with the Southern California Sun of the new World Football League. His contract reportedly made him the highest-paid offensive lineman in professional football at the time.
Brown and several other members of the team opted out of their contracts just before the WFL playoffs, however, when the team failed to make payroll.
He was signed by the San Diego Chargers. He started for the NFL team during both the 1975 and 1977 seasons but had his career cut short by injuries.
Brown, who was the father of seven children, was inducted into the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame in 1982.